There was no clown suit according to the Telegraph article
Yes, I know I’d be pretty annoyed if that happened to us, especially if we had trusted a ‘no children’ advert.
I’m afraid misbehaviour, be it by children or adults, is becoming increasingly more prevalent these days.
Fortunately, we have decided to spend our free time only in this country, at least for this year, and we can hopefully be careful where we choose to go. Small village locations seem to be the safest option if we try to choose places that wouldn’t appeal to ‘families’!
Misbehaviour is not just limited to ’ yobs and chavs’ well heeled people can behaviour just as badly and do .
I think a lot of people are choosing the so called Staycation now. Apart from the parking charges, it makes sense. 
I agree. Well-heeled people can, and often are, yobs!
It’s nothing to do with financial status. It’s to do with how well, or badly, brought-up they were.
Yes. Not always a problem, though. We recently went for a couple of days to the Lake District and stayed in a pleasant place in Hawkshead which had its own parking spaces.
What a bonus. 
Just something we usually look for on Trip Advisor!
Good Morning Britain journalist Richard Gaisford, who was on board, said the violence occurred after a black-tie evening and an afternoon of “patriotic” partying on deck, when large amounts of alcohol were consumed.
Should’nt that been announced as, “A Black Eye Evening!” :-):-)
Some people just can’t handle drink!
Yes, I have in the past been drunk but I tend to do it quietly and with slurred speech! I don’t start to threaten people and try to start a fight. I suppose it depends on your character and, as everyone on here surely knows, I’m a nice, loving person. 
Talking of dumb comments. You go on to prove exactly what I was saying!
Despite your unproven assertion to the contrary these are cheap holidays, many of my kids friends go cruising in between ‘real’ holidays because it is so cheap and their kids are looked after.
Just look at what Flight Centre is offering at the moment for 2020, the most expensive is about £1000 the cheapest less than £400. BTW this was the first thing that came up in Google below the ads.
Wait until near sailing time and they get even cheaper.
Were they serving knuckle sandwiches? :-p
Holiday camp at sea, not very relaxing, and a major health hazard if anyone gets sick. Relatives that have chosen a cruise have not enjoyed it.
Class segregation might be advisable.
Yes, that might help! 
Major fail there Brucie old man
You really need to undersdtand what you are talking about before you stick your foot in your mouth.
Those prices are all PER PERSON not per cabin, which if you cruised, you would know is the way all cruise lines price their offers.
So no, there’s nothing there under £400 and the most expensive isn’t £1000.
The South Pacific cruise is the most expensive there at £1877 for just 9 nights (£208 per night)
The others range from £113 per night tothat £208 per night.
Fly stay holidays to typical resorts are way way cheaper than cruising. Heck you can hop on a flight to many places for under £100.
Nice try old bean but no cigar !
Actually if you the cruise line appropriate to your needs, it’s a brilliant way to travel, unmatched in fact.
Not for a second a “Holiday camp” but there are numerous cruise lines all pitched at different levels of formality and style. So you just have to select correctly.
For example, you could go with Stellios’s Easy Cruise, a floating night rave party cruise line.
Or you could go with Cunard, with class segregation, certain ticket holders only having access to certain exclusive parts of the ship and so on.
P&O Cruises has not been “holiday camp” at all. It’s a predominently semi formal atmostphere most of the time. Very decent like minded British people all getting on and having great holidays. There are exceptions to all cruise lines and always will be. Determined by the length and type of actual cruise, the time in the year when you take it, and whether kids are on board or not.
Pick a 2/3 night short cruise to Amsterdam and you’re not going to experience at all what a P&O cruise is. For that specific trip it will become a party “booze cruise” full of stag and hen parties and whole companies like travel agents hiring much of teh ship’s cabins. Ok for some, not for me.
Pick Ventura as your ship in the kids summer holidays and you’ll have kids running riot, screaming and shouting and misbehaving for the duration including running up and down cabin corridors in at 1am in the morning. Pick a different ship like Aurora in the same time period and the experience is totally different. Kids well behaved, well parented and no trouble at all.
You have to know the ships in the fleet, the cruise line itself and how things differ for different length cruises and different itineraries.
Not easy for first timers I will grant you, which is why it is always best to consult experienced cruisers for help and advice before booking.
Incidents like this brawling one won’t ever put me off cruising. It’s just too fabulous a way to travel. It will simply steer me towards different cruise lines.
On your second issue of major health hazard I’m not in agreement.
There are always and I mean ALWAYS, 100% every cruise, sick people. It’s just a numbers game. With 1500 to 3000 passengers on a ship some of them will be sick when they come on board and others will get sick during the cruise, often catching stuff from ports of call.
There is a good medical department fully equipped on the lower decks of the ship. They can look after all manner of problems inclucing very sick elderly people. If things are more serious people can be helicopter lifted off and taken to mainland hospitals.
Colds and bugs do go round the ship quickly for those people who are naive, ignorant of basic hygiene and unaware. But the levels are no more than happen on land. In fact the much published instances of gastro illnesses like Norovirus in the news on ships are in fact tiny compared to on land. Hospitals are the most prevalent places for Norovirus and many other places with many people. Those places just don’t get the news attention that cruise ships do, that’s all.
You should also note that such illnesses are taken extremely serious indeed due to their contagious nature. If you come down with Norovirus or similar contagious sickness and runs then the ship confines you to your cabin for a period of at least 48 hrs and usually for 72hrs. They disable your cruise cards for the duration which means if you tried to sneak out of your cabin you wouldn’t be able to buy any food or drink or anything in the shops. If you were caught out of your cabin having been quarantined, you’d be dealt with sternly, most likely being put off at the next port and having to find your own way home.
Deep cleansing of the entire ship happens frequently and always after any round of Norovirus. Everything is sterilised and fumigated. Staff constantly disinfect hand rails and lift buttons and other common areas.
Experienced cruisers take all of this in their stride. They know the score. They don’t use their fingers to press lift buttons (on a ship or anywhere else !), they don’t use handrails and they don’t go up to the “self service” buffet restaurant at all (which is the most risky area) and instead take all their meals in the proper restaurants with waiter service.
Waiters and other staff also have hugely strict protocols with hygiene, food serving and so on.
There’s so much more I could explain learned from years of cruising but it would take too long here.
I’ve cruised over 35 times and seen Norovirus on maybe 5 trips. Never been an issue. Ship protocols immediately change if the number of sick passengers rises sharply. Buffet areas get shut down or cease being self service, salt and pepper pots are removed from tables and replaced with little sachets, wine glass removed and so on. It’s like a military machine.
Anyway, I assure you, cruising is an absolutely fabulous way to travel. 
Appreciate your obvious love of cruising, if we decide to give it a try will know who to ask for advice. Have very much enjoyed Loch cruise on SS Sir Walter Scott, and Scottish Isles on PS Waverley.
We prefer not to have a strict itinerary, for us a holiday is the freedom to do as we please, no stress no time restriction.
Yes they were LD! Cabaret supplied by one Harry Hill. :-):-)
If you go an all inclusive holiday Realist the drink is included in the price. One could say well you actually pay in a roundabout way . Guess you would be right To me though, spending a holiday in an hotel would be more preferable . The people are changing,so one doesn"t see the same people for three weeks + I wouldn"t want to sit with strangers , not my cuppa tea one bit.
Cruising sees you meet a whole raft of new people and many become very good friends, some life long friends.
It’s a very different atmosphere to standard package holidays which tend to be pretty superficial.
Cruises for the most part see lots of like minded people come together. Sure there will always be a few exceptions but 90% or more people are all enthusiastic about cruising and tend to have a lot of common interests.
I realise of course that lots of package holidays offer all inclusive food and drink. They are what they are. I wouldn’t personally want to go near them. Not the kind of people I generally want to be around.
Cruising has, at least for me, with P&O cruises, been extremely pleasant, brilliant fellow passengers, excellent staff and an overall wonderful experience. That they are now starting to offer these drink packages is regrettable and may result in us changing cruise lines.
As stated earlier, I have now written to P&O to express my disappointment.